Archive for December, 2009
The best songs of 2009
Friday, December 18th, 2009
We’ve held off subjecting you to The Pop Cop’s end-of-year lists for as long as possible, but we can wait no more.
First up… our favourite songs of 2009. There are 30 of them and they’re in alphabetical order because we love them all equally – it’s not like picking a favourite brand of beer, you know (Kronenberg, always Kronenberg).
You can hear each track via the playlist gadget above and you can download the whole lot using the link at the bottom of the post. Take a second to let us know which ones you like or dislike in the comments section.
Adam Lambert - Music Again
Here’s a prediction for you. Music Again will be a global hit in 2010, launching the career of Adam Lambert outside the United States. By all means scoff at our choice of the American Idol runner-up, but not before you’ve heard his wonderfully overblown stadium rock anthem which unsurprisingly sounds a lot like The Darkness since Justin Hawkins wrote it.
Beerjacket - Dancing In The Dark
On the night of June 18, 2009, Peter Kelly aka Beerjacket emailed The Pop Cop his take on the Bruce Springsteen classic. The next morning he got cold feet and asked us to delete it. Too late. We were so astounded by how great it was we’d already forwarded it to I Guess I’m Floating… whose mp3 post led to a review on Rolling Stone… which prompted a Beerjacket feature in the Daily Record. He doesn’t bear a grudge.
Broken Records - A Promise
Utterly spellbinding, with the hushed piano intro slowly building Fix You-style into a genuinely moving conclusion.
Broken Records - Thoughts On A Picture (In A Paper, January 2009)
There aren’t too many bands who are able (or brave enough) to drive an entire song with a ukulele as the lead instrument, but Broken Records do just that on Thoughts On A Picture and it’s really rather stirring.
Camera Obscura - The Sweetest Thing
Camera Obscura get all cutesy with this delightful love song. One to keep for the Valentines Day mixtape methinks.
Dashboard Confessional - Get Me Right
When music buyers have a choice of what feels like about a million new albums per year, it’s wise for a band to make sure their most ear-catching song comes first. Dashboard Confessional did that with Get Me Right and it perfectly sums up the slickness of their sixth album, Alter The Ending. The drums are particularly satisfying when they kick in.
Emmy The Great - First Love
After an inauspicious intro First Love builds and builds, while the chugging acoustic guitar and marching beat just keep giving until its clattering, helter-skelter crescendo of a finish. Emmy even manages to sing “Hallelujah” without breaking into that ‘other’ version.
Emmy The Great - We Almost Had A Baby
Who says you can’t write pop songs about the risks of birth control? “Well, you didn’t stop when I told you to stop” has to be one of the greatest opening lyrics ever.
Frightened Rabbit - Swim Until You Can’t See Land
As a teaser for their soon-to-be-mega third album, Frabbit picked a belter. Swim Until You Can’t See Land just swoons in a wave-a-flag-at-a-festival way, and the video is a thing of beauty too. There’s nothing more for it than to hit the repeat button.
Hockey - Song Away
If only Hockey had written more three-minute indie-disco diamonds like this then they could have delivered an album that didn’t sag as much as Mind Chaos did. Either way, Song Away is a rare slab of undeniable brilliance.
Jack’s Mannequin - There, There Katie
This warm glow of an EP track from the American piano-rock heroes sees frontman Andrew McMahon pay a touching tribute to his sister, whose bone marrow donation saved his life after he was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 20.
James - Not So Strong
How can you write off James when they continually offer proof of their greatness? Not So Strong shows the band at their momentum-building best in a rousing song filled with Tim Booth’s boxing references.
Jamie T - Sticks ‘N’ Stones
Sticks ‘N’ Stones is typically Jamie T, with testosterone-fulled rhymes and rhythms, but it’s got a chorus to die for and is the Londoner’s finest moment to date by far.
Jose Vanders - Summer
Here’s why we don’t pick our favourites till as late as possible in the year. Jose’s stunning Literature Lovers EP was only released last week and Summer is the fifth song on it. It sounds completely incongruous during a snowy Scottish winter but it has such a dippy happiness you can help but break out into a little dance. Just us, then?
LoveLikeFire - William
If you know anyone called William, play this song to them. Who wouldn’t want to have their name repeatedly howled by frontwoman Ann Yu? The percussion is just immense, with delightful squalls of feedback and minor chords aplenty creating an atmosphere of real edginess.
Malcolm Middleton - Red Travellin’ Socks
Easily the most accessible song written by the arch-miserabilist. It’s impossible to not like it. In a country where people actually buy good records this would be at the top of the charts. We’ll keep dreaming.
Mumford & Sons - Little Lion Man
Regular readers might recall that Little Lion Man also made an appearance in The Pop Cop’s best songs of 2008 list on the strength of its pre-album form. The Sigh No More version is doubly fantastic, particularly when the drums crash in with renewed vigour at 3:29.
Mumford & Sons - The Cave
Typical of what Mumford & Sons do best – toe-thumping, hoedown rock. In case you hadn’t noticed, we bloody love this band.
Phoenix - 1901
1901 just oozes super-smooth Gallic cool. If there’s some sort of magic potion for creating perfect dance tunes, Phoenix drink it for breakfast in their shag-pads. In Calvin Harris’ head he thinks he’s making music this hot. Poor sod.
Regina Spektor - Laughing With
It would take something rather extraordinary or a mischievous hypnotist to make staunch atheists like The Pop Cop fall in love with a song about religion. Damn you, Regina!
Roddy Hart - Send A Message
The first offering from the Glaswegian’s Sign Language album is pure pop splendour dripping in wide-eyed melody and glory-seeking harmonies. It’s like Teenage Fanclub and Ryan Adams rolled into one, which can only ever be a good thing.
Slow Club - It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful
It still mystifies us that this quirky Sheffield duo haven’t become a mainstream success story. It Doesn’t Have To Be Beautiful is Slow Club at their best – a raucous melody, a pop sensibility even more radio-friendly than their nearest likeness, The White Stripes, and an instant likeability factor.
The Sounds - 4 Songs & A Fight
Spiky Swedish indie of the highest order. Singer Maja Ivarsson snarls her way through the verses and choruses with real vigour and just when you think the song has reached its peak, there’s a where-the-fuck-did-that-come-from moment at 2:52 when the rest of the band approach the microphone for an awesome Arcade Fire-style group harmony. Genius.
The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition
Sweet Disposition was actually first posted on this site way back in November 2008 courtesy of our Australian MAP colleagues Who The Bloody Hell Are They? – however, the track didn’t get its UK release till this year so that makes it qualify for the 2009 list. It sounds like an epic U2 anthem and also features heavily in (500) Days of Summer – the best film of the year – so it’s win-win.
The Xcerts - Crisis In The Slow Lane
We only picked one of our monthly MAP selections for this end-of-year collection and Crisis In The Slow Lane is it. We’ve written it before and we’ll write it again, The Xcerts are heirs to the Biffy Clyro throne: Hit-laden debut album ignored by mainstream press. Check. Cult following of hardcore fans. Check. Angsty but rousing rock with a canny knack for melody. Check.
There Will Be Fireworks - In Excelsis Deo
Forget that There Will Be Fireworks have made an incredible, original Christmas song. This is an incredible song and there’s quite simply no way we could have left it off here. If the band don’t keep In Excelsis Deo in their live sets after the festive season is over we’ll be having words.
Thomas Western - Your Front Door
Beautiful, timeless-sounding acoustic effort from this extraordinarily talented young singer-songwriter who moved from his native Derbyshire this year to continue his studies in Edinburgh. Your Front Door is nothing short of stunning and Thomas Western is our proudest discovery of 2009.
Tommy Reilly - Grab Me By The Collar
Grab By The Collar takes its musical cue from The View and Sergeant and proves Tommy Reilly’s songs work best when backed up with a full band, as opposed to his one-man-and-a-guitar routine (he’s no Beerjacket). More tunes of this calibre please, Tommy, because Grab Me By The Collar is a gem.
We Were Promised Jetpacks - Keeping Warm
There are a number of swirling, sprawling epics on their These Four Walls debut album but this is the pick of the bunch. Keeping Warm is over eight minutes long and doesn’t overstay its welcome for a single second. Live, it’s even better.
We Were Promised Jetpacks - Quiet Little Voices
It seems pretty crazy to think we first blogged about the Jetpacks and this song in September 2007 and here we are, still raving about Quiet Little Voices as we approach 2010. Yes, it’s that good.
Click here to download all 30 songs in one file.
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Music Alliance Pact – December 2009
Tuesday, December 15th, 2009
Even the impending joy-burst that is Christmas can’t stop the inter-blogging juggernaut that is the Music Alliance Pact, which zooms along like a monthly version of Santa, bearing gifts of song via one chimney-sized post.
For our final MAP offering of 2009, we’ve chosen a track by ambitious Edinburgh-based group THE KAYS LAVELLE but there are plenty of other golden nuggets to discover, including a Portuguese artist who released a song on a little-known Scottish label, plus MAP’s first ever submission from the Netherlands, who are represented by the excellent Amsterdam Event Guide website. Shweet.
SCOTLAND: The Pop Cop
The Kays Lavelle – Aftermath
If any film directors are reading, do yourself a favour and download this song. With its eerily mesmeric piano refrain and increasingly intense, impassioned vocals, Aftermath is just begging to be played during an emotionally-wrought scene or at the end of the movie as the credits run. A studio version of Aftermath featuring the full band will appear on The Kays Lavelle’s debut album due out early next year.
January 8, 13th Note, Glasgow (Euan McMeeken solo show)
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Best Scottish live music photo of 2009 competition
Friday, December 11th, 2009
This incredible photograph of Twin Atlantic’s Sam McTrusty in mid-flight has been part of The Pop Cop blog for the past year – part of the reward for winning our best Scottish live music photo of 2008 competition – and it’s now time to invite entries for 2009.
As well as being the envy of all his friends for having his photo on our home page and bagging two free tickets to the gig of his choice, John Lewis’ winning pic was subsequently published by many publications including The List (full page feature) and News of the World, so there’s every incentive for any budding snappers out there to get their talents recognised.
This year’s winner will receive a pair of weekend camping tickets to the 2010 Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival in Inverness-shire on August 6-7, worth nearly £200. And, of course, the winning picture will be displayed for an entire year on the main page of The Pop Cop.
We’ll post the top 3 as selected by The Pop Cop jury before the end of January. You can see last year’s chosen ones here.
THE RULES
The photo must have been taken in Scotland.
The photo must have been taken in a live environment.
The photo must have been taken in a music environment.
You can submit up to TWO photos.
The closing date for entries is Friday, January 15, 2010 but the photo must have been taken in 2009.
HOW TO ENTER
Email your photo(s) as a jpeg attachment to thepopcop@gmail.com with the subject title “Photo competition”.
Include details of where and when you took the photo(s).
Include your full name and address.
Good luck, and be sure to spread the word to any budding photographers you know.
Weezer – Photograph
The Rest – Memories Like Photographs
Good Shoes – Photos
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